Conventional gas-fired grills consist of a main grill compartment containing a gas burner positioned beneath a fire grate which supports briquettes such as lava rocks. A cooking grid on which food to be grilled is suspended above the briquettes, and heat from the burning gas is transferred to the briquettes which provides radiant heat for cooking food on the grid. Generally, the grill compartment is supported on a cart assembly that also supports a side table on either or both sides of the grill compartment. Alternatively, the cart assembly may support an auxiliary side burner in lieu of one of the side tables. It is often the case that the user of the gas grill is cramped for work space in which to prepare the barbecued meal, particularly where the grill cart assembly has only one side table.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to provide working surfaces for the user of the gas grill. See, for example, the following U.S. patents which disclose either stationary side tables or side tables which are moveable about a horizontal axis:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,607 to Doolittle et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,888 to Christen, Jr., et al.; U.S. Pat. No. D 4,326,207 to Koziol; and U.S. Pat. No. D 325,318 to Parent et al.
While those prior art grills do provide working surfaces in connection with the grill cart assembly of a barbecue grill, an improved side table capable of rotational movement about a vertical axis between a storage position and an working position is desirable. Accordingly, it is a principal object of this invention to provide such a new and improved side table.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such an articulating side table which can be mounted on existing barbecue grills.
Yet an additional object of the present invention is to provide an auxiliary side table that may be stored underneath the body of the grill or below a stationary side table mounted to the grill.